Rita’s story

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Rita is 72 years old and lives in Tigard, Oregon. She has three children. When they were young, she took time out of the paid work force to take care of them. When they were grown up, she went to work at Pinnacle Risk Management Services for 10 years. Rita originally started working in the filing department, but injured herself moving large tax file storage boxes. After her injury, she transferred to the data entry department. Her husband Frank also worked at Pinnacle and was planning on retiring at age 65; but due to illness, he had to stop working at age 62. When they both retired, Rita’s monthly check was $588 and Frank’s was $1,239. Starting in May of 2013, Frank’s health began to significantly deteriorate. He passed away in July of 2013. Now Rita is receiving a benefit of $1,589, on which she lives. Although she has a small 401(k) which helps her with expenses, Rita is hardly making ends meet. She lives in a manufactured home park community; and while she owns her home, she has to pay $700 per month in rent for the lot it sits on.